Natural Disasters            Natural disasters take many different forms and can happen without warning. Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, drought, typhoons and hurricanes are all natural disasters. The earthquake of 26 December 2004 resulted in one of theworst natural disasters in living memory. It was a massive (1) quake and occurred in the Indian Ocean. This caused a huge tidal-wave (a (2)) to cross the Indian Ocean. It destroyed coastlines, communities and brought death and destruction to many people. Thousands of people were killed as the wave travelled miles across the ocean to distant beaches. Whole families were swept out to sea or drowned as the sea invad……… (3). 

           What is the difference between a Hurricane and a Tornado? Hurricanes are extremely strong storms and often happen in the Caribbean. They cause (4), huge waves, and heavy flooding and can be hundreds of miles across. In 1998, Hurricane Gilbert produced 160 miles an hour winds. It killed 318 people, and destroyed much of Jamaica. Tornadoes or ‘twisters’ are very strong spinning winds. They can move objects as big as a car and can blow buildings down. These are very common in West Africa and certain areas of the USA.

          Which is the most dangerous natural disaster? All the disasters mentioned above are very dangerous and continue to kill thousands of people each year, but they are nowhere near the most dangerous disaster to ever happen on earth. One type of event in earth’s history has regularly killed millions of beings; (5). About once every million years the earth is hit by a piece of rock and ice from space large enough to cause massive destruction (including earthquakes, volcanoes and (6)) and sometimes to kill entire species. 65 million years ago more than half the earth’s species were killed by such an impact (including all the (7)).

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